The Monster In The Dark
by Charlie Hammond
Summary: Ten/Rose fluff. Rose is having nightmares but The Doctor is there to comfort her. When he thinks she might need a break from the TARDIS and their adventures, she refuses and the truth is spilt.


Doctor! Doctor!_ Rose shouts. She runs through the big, wooden mansion, unprotected and scared. Once up the steep staircase, she heads towards the first door she sees and slams the door shut behind her. She pants as she cautiously looks round the room, checking for danger. Quickly, she pulls a heavy looking table in front of the door in hope that it will keep the monster out. She hears it slowly creak up the stairs and she clasps her hands over her mouth to quiet her uneven and panting breath. It's no good. The monster can smell her sweat from running and begins to bang on the door, eventually breaking it down. It slowly walks towards Rose. She backs away into a corner, only being able to scream at the top of her lungs the one person she wants to see the most, the one person who is always on her mind. _Doctor!

"Rose! Rose it's okay, I'm here!" Rose quickly opened her eyes. She was sweating in her bed, her sheets were by her feet. She looked around, confused and scared. She was in her bedroom, the lights were on but the curtains were closed. The Doctor was sitting beside her on her bed looking worried. "I'm here Rose, it's okay now."

"What happened?" She asked him, propping herself up.

"I was asleep and all of a sudden I heard your shrill voice screaming my name. I came running and you were kicking and panting and sweating," the Doctor told her confused face. "It was just a dream. You're fine, you're in the TARDIS."

"But it seemed so real." She shook her head.

"It wasn't real. Have something to drink, you look so pale," he said handing her half a glass of water.

She smiled at him and accepted the drink before realising she was in her underwear. She glanced down at herself, choking on a mouthful of water and apologising at least five times to the Doctor.

"Oh, it's fine, really!" He reassured her. "Now get some more sleep, I'll be in my room if you need me," he got up and smiled at her before taking the glass of water back and putting it on her bedside table. He casually walked towards the door in a very Doctor-like manner with his hands in his pockets before he switched off the lights.

"Could you leave the door open a bit … please?" Rose asked him sweetly. He smiled and obeyed. "Doctor," he heard her voice again and popped his head through the slightly open door "Thank you." She said, and drifted off to sleep.

The Doctor strolled down the TARDIS corridors with his hands in his dressing gown. Eventually, he got to his bedroom and, not shutting the door behind him in case he heard Rose's screams again, he slumped into his bed. He buried his face into his hands and sighed, not trying to be too loud in case he woke Rose up. He wasn't trying to make it obvious that he loved her; he was just trying to be himself, the Doctor - _Rose's Doctor. _He was always serious if anything happened to Rose, but this was a different kind of serious. He wanted to be there for her more than he ever wanted to before …

* * *

The next morning Rose awoke with no more than three hours of sleep. She made herself decent, acknowledging that the Doctor had seen her in her underwear the previous night, and walked down to the kitchen. Once she arrived, she made herself some toast and juice and began to wonder if the Doctor was awake yet. She let her feet lead her to the one room she knew he would be in - the console room.

She walked towards it to find the Doctor sitting with the TARDIS doors wide open and his legs dangling out the edge of the doorway, admiring the view of the galaxies.

"Doctor?" Rose staggered. He jumped, not expecting to hear her voice, _her beautiful voice_, for another few hours, but he appreciated it anyway. "What are you doing out here?" Rose laughed into her toast as she took another bite.

"I thought I'd just come and galaxy-gaze," he smiled up at her closing the TARDIS doors.

"Galaxy-gaze, is that what it's called?" Rose laughed, smiling at his cheeky grin.

"Ah well, only by the Time Lords. We come up with all the best phrases."

"Is that so?" Rose asked him a little more slowly and raised her brow. "Where are we off to today then, _Time Lord?_"

"Uh, I was thinking we could just stay here in the TARDIS – as mates." _As mates. Now she's definitely got the wrong idea._

"This isn't because of the whole nightmare thing again is it?" Rose questioned him rather annoyed.

"No, no! I just don't think we spend enough time in here!" The Doctor lied. Rose laughed as she finished her toast and watched him - admired him - take control of the TARDIS.

* * *

"Ready or not, here I come!" Rose playfully laughed. She breathed in the sweet aroma that filled the TARDIS gardens and began to search for the Doctor – _her Doctor._

"Rose Tyler, I'm not going to play your silly childhood games any longer," the Doctor suddenly said from behind her in a serious tone of voice.

She jumped and laughed but replied to him and a rather confused tone. "I'm sorry, weren't you the one who suggested we can explore the TARDIS with a game?"

"I didn't mean like this. This is just childlike!" The Doctor said, obviously not serious. Rose knew he was the most unserious man she had ever met at times.

"Would you like me to make it a bit more … adult?" She lowered her voice and slowed her speech, breathing in very heavily and she pinned him against a wall.

He gulped and made a small _eek _sound, something that Rose had never heard before. She raised her brow and studied his face, unsure whether he enjoyed it or found it inappropriate.

"No, Rose!" He told her, his voice a little higher than usual. She gathered he enjoyed it but didn't push it anymore. _We've already kissed twice, what's the big deal in doing it again? _She followed him out back towards the console room where he didn't look at her once.

* * *

Soon, day had turned to night and Rose wasn't ready to go to sleep. She stayed up for an hour after the Doctor before deciding to finally go to her room and lay down.

_Once up the steep staircase, she heads towards the first door she sees and slams the door shut behind her. _Rose twisted and turned in her bed, frantically trying to get away from something that wasn't there. _It slowly walks towards Rose. She backs away into a corner, only being able to scream at the top of her lungs the one person she wants to see the most, the one person who is always on her mind. _Rose shot out of bed, panting silently.

She looked around her dim room to find she was completely alone. Suddenly, she remembered her dream and the one person who was always there for her … who just wasn't there tonight. She got up and, not bothering to change her underwear for pyjamas, she walked towards the Doctor's room.

The door creaked open of his pitch black room. The Doctor stirred in his sleep but never awoke. _Maybe Time Lords do need a little bit of sleep after all._ Rose slipped silently into his bed and backed up into the protection his warm body. She wrapped his lifeless arms over her bare ones and settled down. A small smirk arose on the Doctor's face but he continued to sleep on as he had been before. The only sound now was the Doctor's deep breathing as he slept on, seemingly unaware of anything around him.

* * *

Neither the Doctor nor Rose had mentioned the hide and seek incident from the previous day, let alone Rose creeping into the Doctor's bed. Rose began to grow very impatient as she wondered why the Doctor didn't bring it up. She'd always had a hunch he wouldn't mind if she wandered on the lines of them going from friends to maybe something more than that. She slumped into the captain's chair in the console room as the Doctor was under a small flight of stairs working on the TARDIS. Rose brought herself to say the seven words she said every day. _Where are we going today then, Doctor? _He only replied with, _I thought we could stay here - as mates. _Rose got up from the chair and lent over the railing to see the Doctor bent over wires and working on the TARDIS. She smirked as she inspected every detail of his curved body without his permission.

"Look, Rose," the Doctor began. Rose stopped smiling at once and began to look interested in what he was saying, not meaning to put him off. "What I said yesterday …"

"What _did _you say yesterday?" Rose suddenly became intrigued.

"About taking time away from seeing planets, and I said that's not why I wanted to stay in the TARDIS. I lied, I just didn't want you to get upset," he continued to fix the TARDIS but glanced up at her sad eyes to say, "I'm sorry."

"Is that it? … You're not going to say anything about, oh I don't know … the night?" She hinted.

"What about it?" He asked with his sonic screwdriver in between his teeth.

"Nothing, I just thought there was more to it than that," she sighed and patted the railing before heading towards her bedroom.

_Of course I know what she's going on about. I'm a Time Lord, I'm not thick. Maybe I should go into her room and talk to her about it. No. What kind of Time Lord talks to a human girl about the feelings he has for her. I can't get involved with her, my life will go on and hers won't. Don't be stupid, Doctor._

"Rose?" The Doctor said almost barging into her room, though he waited for a reply in case she wasn't decent and got angry at him, but he was almost certain that she wouldn't. _Walk in now, it would be perfect. _

"Yeah, Doctor?" She sniffled.

He opened the creaky door and looked at her saddened, blotchy face. "Rose? Rose what is it, what's wrong?" He stopped himself from running over to her and asked the question in a more serious, Doctor-like way whilst he sat beside her and inspected her.

"I'm just a little sleep deprived," she replied, forcing a smile on her heartbroken face.

"No you're not, tell me Rose. Please." It was the first time the Doctor had come even remotely close to begging from her.

"Why did you make out like you knew nothing of last night when I know you did?!" Rose shouted. More tears came flooding out.

"I'm … I'm sorry …" the Doctor was speechless. What was he meant to say? He couldn't just break her heart and still travel around with her. "I like you … Rose Tyler. Oh, very much so. But I'm a Time Lord, I regenerate and my life goes on. You're human, you wither and you die." Tears filled up the Doctor's eyes but he blinked them back, refusing to show the girl, he knew for a fact he was in love with, any emotion.

"But I can spend the rest of my life with you. We can travel the universe."

"You could … but only as-"

The only way Rose knew how to shut the Doctor up, was to kiss him. She really didn't want to hear the next word; she could guess what it was going to be -_ mates_. She pressed her lips up against his with a firm hold on his lapels. He didn't back away, but decided to kiss her back. She moved her hands up his neck and began to feel the back of his head and his _perfect _hair. He wrapped his arms around her waist and dared to let his hands drop to her bum, but he contained himself. He didn't want to rush into anything. Before ending the _perfect _kiss, Rose felt a single tear roll down the Doctor's cheek. She had never seen him express emotion like that before.

"They're not going to stop Doctor - the nightmares. That's why I came into your room last night, so I could be with someone who protects me."

The Doctor looked down, not daring to show the tears that where rolling down his shaven face. Rose cupped his chin in her hand and pulled him in for another kiss.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose laid lazily on a sofa, her body entwined with his. He wasn't in his normal suit and trench coat, but rather in an under top and boxers. Rose however, was wearing a shirt of his that was clearly too big for her and some rather appealing knickers. Her hair was done in a lazy bun, but she still looked absolutely _beautiful _to the Doctor. She yawned as they watched some dull TV and he decided to turn it off and to take her to bed. The Doctor helped her to unbutton the oversized shirt that made her look rather sexy according to him, and she climbed into her side of their bed, expecting as always, him to wrap his arms around her and study her figure. As he did, she smiled and groaned, moving her legs up and down his as he protected her. Soon enough, they settled into sleep, the only sounds where their harmonised breathing. Neither of them wanted to be anywhere other than there.


End file.
